Episode 98: How To Start and Grow One of The Most Successful Podcasts in Australia, An Interview with Sophie Walker, Founder of Australian Birth Stories
In today’s episode, Fiona talks to the founder of one of the most successful podcasts in Australia - Sophie Walker from Australian Birth Stories. In this special (post-Mother’s Day) interview, get to know how Sophie started her podcast focused on women sharing firsthand their stories of childbirth in Australia and overseas. Listen to the end to learn how Sophie grew her podcast without the initial intention of turning into a business, but just a platform to share her stories and other mums’ as well.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Catching Up
About Australian Birth Stories
Covid Impact on The Business
What led Sophie Down To This Path?
Her Upbringing
Sophie's Goals for The Podcast
On Having Millions of Downloads
On How Her Podcast Helps Mums
On Setting Up Her Website
On Getting Help From A Business Coach
On Reaching Out And Learning Managing The Business
On Learning To Say No
On Setting Boundaries
On Editing The Podcast
Other Tools Used For Podcast and The Business
On Celebrating Her Fifth Year
On Doing Something Different If Given The Chance To Start Again
Most Proud Moments From Her Journey
Connecting with Sophie Walker
Conclusion
Connect with Sophie Walker of Australian Birth Stories:
Episode transcript:
I thought, well, once I consistently get to a point where I'm covering the same amount of money I'm making at my part-time job, then I'll quit the job and do the podcast. So I waited for that, which I highly recommend. I hear people kind of just throwing in the towel and going all in on the business, I think, this goes slow. Make sure that it's viable and you can really pull it off before you go throwing in the other income, I think.
Hello and welcome to Episode 98 of My Daily Business Coach podcast. Can you hear in my voice I'm excited we're getting so close to 100 episodes. So today I am talking to somebody absolutely fabulous who's doing huge things for mental health and physical strength. And just overall, I guess, connection that people have to one of the most life changing moments in their lives. She is a small business owner who I'm in awe of from what she's achieved in terms of podcasting and her business. But also she's just such a beautiful soul, like someone who's actually really caring and really passionate about what they're putting out there.
And that's exactly the type of people that I love to get onto this podcast. It's also interesting that if you're listening to this in real time, today is Thursday, the 13th of May, and that is… was my mother's birthday. And my mother spent most of her career as a midwife and a psychiatric nurse working with people who had postnatal depression. So it's kind of serendipity that I have this guest on today's podcast. So today's podcast interview is with the brilliant Sophie Walker, founder of Australian Birth Stories.
Now, Australian Birth Stories has to be one of the top most successful podcasts in Australia with the counting of, I think, 4.7M downloads. Yes, I did say million. So absolutely blowing everybody else completely out of the water, but more so than the figures and the business that Sophie's been able to build off. The back of the popularity of her podcast has been the real change that she's seen in so many women and their partners who go through the birth experience, change from feeling anxious and nervous and just unempowered to feeling inspired, educated, able to speak up for themselves in that situation and before and after, and also just feeling a huge community around them that's there to support them. With women sharing firsthand their stories of childbirth in Australia and overseas, sometimes, as Sophie touches on in our interview today, she really started the podcast not as a business. She started it as a way of sharing stories, including her own stories of childbirth.
Now, Sophie is a mother of three boys, and she started the podcast after the birth of her second child. She'd had a really traumatic experience the first time, and she'd gone away and done a huge amount of education research, seen what's available, used a different pathway and had a really lovely experience the second time. And I guess she wanted to go out and share this knowledge so that other women would feel empowered when it came to their own birth experience.
Now I am actually appearing on her podcast Australian Birth Stories shortly, going through my own experience of having two children. And I definitely wish that Australian birth stories had been around for the first birth that I went through with my son eight and a bit years ago now, because at the time I just devoured shows in the UK, like one born every minute. And I read so many blogs from women who'd gone through it. But I think there's something so intimate and beautiful about the spoken word and listening to the audio of women who are sharing some of their deepest, darkest moments and also with that beautiful moments and moments of joy like they've never experienced before. So if after listening to our interview today, you are really inspired and you want to find out more, or perhaps you're in a situation where you're hoping to get pregnant, you are pregnant or you just had a baby, then definitely go over and check out more about Sophie as well as the guides and the courses that she offers over at australianbirthstories.com. And you can check out, of course, her podcast, Australian Birth Stories. But yes, I really enjoyed talking to Sophie, not just about, you know, the good stuff that she's doing in the way that she's really, really helping women and their partners and their whole families and communities as an extension get through what can be a very, very tough and traumatic and life changing moment.
But I also loved how she talked about business and how she talks about the real nitty gritty of, you know, working part time until you can build your business up to a stage where it's going to be able to support you. She also talks about having to figure out things like creating an online course, creating, downloadable, building a website when that wasn't initially part of the plan for the podcast. It's a really lovely interview. Sophie has a beautiful, calm voice and a really wonderful demeanour, and it was my absolute pleasure to chat with her. So here it is, my interview with Sophie Walker, founder of Australian Birth Stories. Welcome, Sophie, how are you feeling about life right now?
Thanks so much for having me. I feel pretty good. It's a Monday, so I don't have my kids on a Monday, so it's a bit more relaxing.
I'm the same. I don't have my kids on a Monday or Tuesday, so I feel like I'm starting the week quietly.
It's so lovely. So, so many people listening to this will know about Australian Birth Stories and we'll get into what that is and how you started it. But yeah. Can you talk us through how you describe Australian Birth Stories?
Yeah. So it's a weekly podcast that I run. And each week on a Monday, I interview a mother about her pregnancy, Jenny, as she came to conceive and how she felt her pregnancy and then how her labour went. So we just go right through. So each episode is about an hour. So it's quite in depth about each woman's journey. Yeah. And people now apply to come on the show. So it's a real mixture of some people you will have heard of and then just everyday mums from around Australia.
Well, and when did you start it?
I started on Mother's Day, so it's going to be five years old in the coming weeks.
Well, congratulations.
Thanks.
And so I guess I'm asking everyone this because of the times that we're living in right now. But given we are in the unfolding life, that is life with covid and definitely for some people listening around the world, I have quite a few listeners in India and obviously they are going through massive hardships right now. How has it impacted Australian Birth Stories? Did it impact it? Did it not because you were alone?
Yeah, I wasn't impacted, really. I feel really grateful. My family were all healthy and our incomes didn't alter. My husband's a teacher, so he's had a steady income. And I actually probably had my biggest year over the last 12 months just because a lot of antenatal classes were cancelled, particularly our Melbourne based. And so, yeah, during that really full on lockdown that we did, people couldn't get to their health care providers as frequently as they would usually, and they couldn't attend classes. So they tend to the podcast for a lot of that content. And I've got some online courses. So there was those kind of sales actually increased for me. So I sort of almost felt a bit guilty because I was doing better than ever, although I was still locked in with three kids and a husband. Yeah, but the business did really well over the last 12 months, so I feel quite grateful about that.
Yeah. And I definitely don't think you should feel guilty because what you're doing is so important for people. And I just felt for anyone giving birth last year, especially in Melbourne or even not even giving birth on the IVF path. So many people that were impacted by the lockdown. And obviously that's happening all around the world. So I think, yeah, it's great that your business did well because it means more people got the help that they needed.
Yeah. Yep. I wasn't selling useless products that were definitely educational resources, so I was giving back in that sense.
Yeah. And so can you talk about your history and I know you've got a Masters because people might think, oh, OK, maybe had a child and you decided to do Australian Birth Stories, but you've got so much more background than that. What sort of led you down this path?
Yeah, I've got a master's in public health and I was actually in between children. I went back to work two days a week and I was looking at the Cancer Council. Cells in cancer research say quite different to pregnancy related topics. But I've always been really passionate and I think even at a really young age, wondered whether I might be a midwife. And I'm not sure why I didn't follow that path to school, but I didn't. Yes, I was working part time and juggling, having one child at home. My mum only looked after my eldest little boy while I worked part time and I was really an avid podcast listener. Then I was listening to kind of American birth stories and there really wasn't anything at that time that was Australian focused and a girlfriend. And I used to do we used to do a lot of stuffing envelopes, sending questionnaires out to people. And while we were stuffing envelopes, we like you shooting our own podcast and do an Australian one. And we sort of joked about it and then eventually sort of started. We also joked about, oh, wouldn't it be good if one day it made you money and people will send prams and things like that? So now whenever anything happens in the business, I shoot a message and say, you'll never guess, but this is what's happened now. So it's quite funny. But I it was literally like a little side project that grew and grew and grew and then became a business and became my full time job. So it feels I sort of joke that I did my whole business backwards and I'm still trying to rejig that because I feel like nowadays everyone starts a podcast to promote their business. And I made a podcast which became a business. So it's kind of backwards.
I love that, though, because it's such a it is a different journey, but also it would allow you to really learn and craft the podcast and then I guess, figure out what people most want to know, which is such valuable information before you start a business.
Yeah, and in some ways it was the right way because I started it not wanting to make money. I started just wanting to give back and to. Help educate women, and I was kind of my own business, time to talk about avatars and your ideal customer, and I was kind of that person at the time because I was a young man working for not that young, but working and juggling kids and then trying to have my first birth wasn't ideal. And I was quite sort of surprised and caught off guard by that. So I did heaps of research before I had my second baby, and I wanted to try and recreate that for other women so they can have a bit of experience and I guess ideally women to come to the podcasts in their first pregnancy and not have to have a bad birth experience to go on and have a better one to start at a better place in the beginning.
Oh, my goodness. And so it's funny that you said you might want to become a midwife. My mom was a midwife, so. Oh, really? Yeah. She was a midwife and she worked in the 60s in New York and all over San Francisco. And she grew up in Ireland. And she used to tell me that when she was training, they'd go out to these like farms in the middle of nowhere in Ireland and they wouldn't even have hot water running. Yeah, it was really, really interesting. And then when we came to Australia, she worked as a psychiatric nurse in postnatal depression wards at the Mercy. So I really love what you're doing. So I think it's just so, so important. A lot of people don't have. I had my mum always talking about it and all of that. My sister's a doctor and she specialises in obstetrics and stuff because she's in the country. And I guess it's usually country GP a lot when you're in that situation. So on that note, what was your upbringing like or your parents in the health space of a small business owners? Or I guess because a lot of people can go through what you go through and have this hard experience, but they don't turn into a really big podcast and a really great way for other people to learn and get educated. Did you grow up in a family of health professionals?
Yeah, my mum's a psychologist. So initially when you ask that question, I thought, oh, she's not a small business. I know that she is really. Because she now works. Yeah, she works for herself and she mostly does marriage counselling. She does individual counselling as well. And she was originally trained as a nurse. So, yeah, she's definitely come from the health space. And interestingly, the over covid, she's now just zooming all had clients and working from home. So she is navigating her own small business in that way. And my dad was born in England and came over. It's like one of those ten pound poms on the boat. It kind of messed up his schooling because he moved when he was 16. So he probably sort of didn't do what he would have liked to do education wise. And he ended up working in insurance. Yeah. So not from a health care background there. And he's since retired, but my mum's still working part time and then she's minding my youngest today, which is handy. Yeah. So, I mean, I wouldn't say that that would kind of really we didn't grow up with a lot of money. My parents separated when I was young, so my mum was a single parent for a long time. So she wasn't kind of running her business then. So I haven't come from witnessing a really strong kind of business growth. And we don't talk about business stuff around the table where we really talk about our emotions and feelings more. So I think that that lent itself to I get a lot of lovely feedback about my interviewing style, and I think I'll have to accredit that to my mum and her psychology background of just being a good listener and creating space for people to to talk.
Oh, I love that. I know it's a term that's bandied around a lot at the moment, active listening, but it is such a beautiful trait for people to have and we don't all have it.
Yeah. And I think sometimes you going to ask a question and then if you wait a little bit, then whole another story unfolds and I think, oh, thank heavens I didn't interject there because it would have taken them off course and because it is a longer form interview, I've got time to allow people to go right into the depths of their story.
And I guess also what you're talking about, I mean, everything is emotional to some degree, but there's probably a few things as emotional as having a baby. So when you started Australian Birth Stories, I know you said you didn't set out for it to become a business, but did you have kind of goals in mind? Were you thinking, I'm going to start it and unlock this many people to listen to it? Or I'd like to get a couple of people sending me feedback that it's helped? When you started it, did you have any kind of it's got to achieve this or this or did you just start it and think, I'll offer my story? And if it helps someone, that's great. But there's no real plan for this.
Yeah, there was definitely no real plan. I didn't have any targets. And it was even though it was only five years ago, podcast when a big deal here then. So it wasn't everyone wasn't across what a podcast was. And people my mum's friends and they still say, oh, she's a blog. And I'm like, I'm not black. It's yeah, it's more than that. But I didn't really have download target, so they will kind of get to take it. But I use Lip-Synch and that's where I host my podcast. And you kind of think all of them chat, how many listens you get any sort of look for the spikes where people download on the day and you want those spikes to grow. And they did kind of incrementally grow. But I wasn't kind of really hung up on that. I did the first ten stories. Just me, my sister and my closest friends, and I wasn't really sure if a lot of people would listen or not, and I was badgering people to come on us. I've got to release the show on Monday. I'll come over on Sunday night. We'll record a story and then I'll put it up, even though I didn't have, like, a big fan base then. But I know I need to be consistent and and it's funny now because I've got over three thousand applications of people wanting to come on. So I don't have to hand my friends any more to come on.
Wow. Oh my goodness. Years of content. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You could just. Oh my goodness. You can, you could just farm this all out and have like ten of Sophie.
Well, it's funny because I'm kind of the face of the brand and the voice of the brand that I could do that and have more people and people have offered to do it and feel like now I'll always be doing the interviews myself, but can need to outsource a lot of other parts of the of the business, I think so that I can just do that, which is a bit more like my zone of genius. So, yeah, my best skills.
Yeah, I think the same. Like when it comes to social media, people always like you should outsource it. No, because I like writing all my Sunday email. I like writing. It's my natural thing. So yeah. I feel, I feel you on that point. You started it five years ago almost. You now have three children and my three little boys. Congratulations you it after the first one was born.
I started after the second one was born so I had quite a yeah. I guess it was traumatic for Lisbeth but we both yeah. We both recovered quite quickly, but it was a shock for me on the day. Then I did a lot of research and had a really great second birth with my wildest child. Doesn't really make sense that his birth was smooth when he's like so wild, but it's interesting. And so I started it then and I was still working and it got I got to a point where I thought, if I can I guess what you ask before. I guess I thought ideally if I can make money on some podcast ads and it covers the same kind of money that I'm making working two days a week at the Cancer Council, then I can do away with my job and just focus on the podcast. So I waited for I probably didn't monetise it for about a year, I think, and I just kind of called emailed friends and asked if they wanted to come on and tell them how many people I had listening, which wasn't many at all in the early days. And I thought, well, once I consistently get to a point where I'm covering the same amount of money I'm making at my part time job, then I'll quit the job and do the podcast. So I waited for that, which I highly recommend. I hear people kind of just throwing in the towel and going all in on the business. I think I'll just go slow, make sure that it's viable and you can really pull it off before you go throwing in the other income, I think.
Yeah, I did that. And I talk about this kind of beat that I didn't I didn't come from a wealthy background. I mean, we went there wasn't anything wrong with it, but I definitely didn't have, like, oh, well, Mum and Dad can support me if this doesn't work. So, yeah, I gave it six months of fully, actively finding clients before I quit my job. And I had everything lined up for at least six to nine months after I'd finished so that I'd be getting an income. So I hear you on that point. I think it's so important that especially now and there's so much out there that's like run a business, anyone can do it. And I'm sure I contribute somewhat to that. But I feel like I'm also trying to remind people that, yeah, Go-slow doesn't need to be Tenex tomorrow.
Yeah. And I think also when you've got mouths to feed and things that people relying on, you have to be sensible about that. And I sort of also witnessed people starting a business and outsourcing all the tasks like you need to do it yourself so you understand it first and laying all the money that you're making and then do it that way. But yeah, anyway, you live and learn. It's interesting to watch people start from scratch.
Yeah. Really. And so you have now had millions of downloads and I'm just like, you can't see me, but I'm really smiling because I'm so excited for you. And that is just huge, especially like you said. Podcasts haven't been as popular here in Australia as they have the US and the UK. And even I used to work at Audible in the UK in 2012, 2013 as well. And and I helped them launch into Australia. And even then and that's only like seven, eight years ago, it was such a big thing for people to listen to anything audio besides music. It was like, oh, how are they going to listen to audio books? So to go from people not really being into podcasts, are you starting your podcast having millions of downloads? How does that feel? Firstly, and also what does it allows you to do?
Yeah, I can't quite get my head around that, really. Those numbers are just so be I think to date now it's four point seven million downloads over the five years. So you can think about that, like you can kind of quantify it properly in your mind. But yeah, it's amazing and I'm very proud and it's allowed me, I think about two years in. I didn't have any products to sell or anything, and I did. Seek out some advice from a business coach and she said, now's the time I was going to make another podcast because it became really passionate and could see a real gap in the market about postpartum recovery and just going through it at the same time as well, just like going for the six week Check-Up and they'll be good to go. And then off you go with your prolapse and all the other issues that you might have. And you just have to navigate that yourself. So I really wanted to try and help educate. And while I was letting myself that make sure that everyone knew how to recover and how to take care of themselves and how important that recovery is, particularly in the first 12 months post birth, to have you on the best possible path into motherhood. So I was going to make a postpartum podcast, which was just going to be more work, and I had less opportunity to make money. So I decided to make courses then. So I made about two courses that I sell at the moment to ones called Postpartum Life After Birth. And that's for audio interviews with health care professionals guiding you through sort of women's health issues, talking about prolapse and how to do pelvic floor exercises and obstetricians talking about the challenges of newborns and reflux and tongue ties and all that sort of thing. So I made those two courses and then I started to make more money through selling those and went on to make some free downloadable guides and breastfeeding guides. So that's how my shop sort of slowly grew and became another form of revenue. So I was getting money from the podcast. I just do a 60 second ad at the start of each episode, so it's getting money from that and then money through the shop. And then some patron supporters were also contributing. So I had three streams going at that time.
Wow, congratulations. Thanks. That's fantastic. And like I said before, you really it's really helping people with what you're doing. I have a beautiful group of friends that we have a book club together. And a lot of us are moms and a lot of us run our own business as well or have a kind of creative pursuit. And we were talking about just post-natal depletion and how you just never hear that much from a general, a general practitioner or the stock standard kind of person that you see after birth. It's just expected that, OK, Well, you're tired and you feel like crap and you might be moody, but that's fine. Your new mom just deal with it.
Yeah. And it's that whole thing because it's common doesn't make it right or doesn't make it OK, because we're all just used to running on no sleep and not looking after ourselves. Actually the men that read the book Fuscus, they're like read the book Postnatal Depression. He's part of the course as well. So just helping people know like what blood tests to ask of their GP and ask them, like, can you check magnesium and can you check these other minerals that perhaps wouldn't be looked at otherwise. So just opening up that conversation. So important.
Yeah, amazing. One of my friends is actually seeing him.
Oh yeah. Yeah, he's amazing.
Yeah. And so when you opened the shop, you went with the business coach. Did you have to kind of like how did you open the shop or did you have a website for the podcast already. And then you just sort of added, added some PDF downloads or how did you kind of learn all of that? Because I'm guessing that was a little bit different to the work you'd been doing prior to starting the podcast.
Yeah, yep. I just I think you just have to put one foot in front of the other and not think about all the things. I'm in the middle of making another calls at the moment and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. It's like now you just got to put one foot in front of the other and do each task as it comes up. But I did other people's courses. So ideas flowing from smart, passive income. I did his podcasting course initially, then a few other courses that help support me, like work out how to what to charge via podcast ads and things like that, which are a fantastic podcast now too. But there weren't many around then. So he's American. But I went with him, actually had a bit of a full circle moment with him because I've since been on his podcast, which was pretty amazing because I used to listen to him back in the day and just learn all the tips and tricks. And then I went for the courses. I just listened to other business podcasts all the time. People often say, oh, what other podcast you listen to? And I think you wouldn't be interested that all a lot of American ones I listen to yours every week, but more recently. But back in the in the early days, I listened to sort of Amy Porterfield and Janet Kocher and a few people like that to learn how to create online courses. And a lot of them just moving to KJB at the moment that I'm currently unteachable. And a lot of those programs teach you step by step, like here's how to set up your sales pages, how to set up the front pages, how you dropping your audio? So I just. Yeah, went step by step by step and then. Yeah. And then once all the have done a lot of that's kind of set and forget now. So yeah, it's a lot of kind of six months of intense working on it. And then I mean it sounds cliche but I do kind of make money in my sleep now. So I just wake up in the morning. I can see I sell three courses overnight. So yeah, it's nice from a business point of view that that that to this kind of does its own thing now.
Yeah, I love that. I'm a huge part for him. Yeah. And yeah, I actually bought his podcast because that was the first thing I ever bought to do with podcasting and. Yeah. And then I never quite finished his course. I got halfway through and I was like, oh I'm just going to just do it kind of fast about for a while. But yeah, I love him. We were actually reading one of his books in my coaching business book club. So yeah, I think, I really think he's one of the few. Oh how do I see the right way. One of the few people in that kind of very high up business coaching world that actually things legit.
Yeah, I often email him to like he's quite approachable. I think also because of being kind of one of his staff students now. But he just would right back to me and I remember thinking, oh my God, he didn't strike back. But he genuinely cares. And he's a family man, which he often talks about as well. So he's really talks a lot about how to blend kind of family life and not be a slave to business, which is nice approach.
Yeah, he does. He seems really real. And I'll have to go back and listen to you on his podcast. And so with everything that's happened besides the part that you sort of talked about and moving to KJB, what else have you had to do in the last few years to kind of up level, I guess? Have there been anything that's been the hardest to learn? You mentioned the courses. Have you even even the fact that when you said before I just called, told people to advertise on my podcast, did you have to learn how to do that or did you just do that? Had you had experience in your previous career doing those kind of reaching out?
No, not at all. So it's kind of fun growing. Learning as you go, but I feel like if you just begin sounds a bit cliche, but if you're genuinely just yourself and I thought this is going to sound like a press release or like a polished piece that you'd get that I now receive from a million people wanting to come on the show, like is my book that I've done. And I'd like to talk about this. I'm like, oh, that's how it should be done. But really, I just came on Sophie. And this is what I've created. And here's a link if you want to check it out. And I'd love to showcase your products because I think they're great fit and just really natural and normal. And that has worked for me today. So I just continue with that approach.
Lovely. And is it being anything, I guess on the flip side, when you're getting thousands of people contacting you all the time? How have you learnt to say no? Because I think that's a big thing that people, especially lots of my clients, will go through, say, people who have quite a huge following on social media. And they'll say, I've been asked to collaborate on this, doesn't feel right. How do you actually do just say straight out, nor do you when you first starting to do that, did you have anything kind of works that you'd advise to anyone listening to this to consider?
I think I said yes to everything in the beginning because you think it's so great to be asked and then your audience grows and things. You kind of get a feel for how things work. And I think, OK, you're asking me to come to that event for free, but you know that I'll probably go live on Instagram and showcase it and then, oh, really? You're getting three thousand dollars worth of free advertising. And then you can also say that I'm going to be there. And so you come to understand a little bit more of that sort of side of things that I actually I'm not going to organise childcare and go across town to that event. It's not really worth my time when I could be spending time on the business. So I think balancing that sort of stuff out and I, I finally, just like that doesn't sound very nice, but I've only just kind of given myself permission to not respond to everything I like right back to every day I have done for years and right back to every email. I think actually I just don't have the time and energy, and especially if it's something that's kind of now when I say that loud sounds a bit mean, but I think if it's really obvious on the website, you should do that. And I've pressed for time, then I'm not going to respond. I figure if you have a little bit more of a giggle, you work it out that perhaps I listen to one of your episodes the other day about templates. I probably just need some more templates and a VA can respond for the template. At the moment, it's still just me. So I just think I just have time balancing how much you give. I think because it's such emotional content as well, when people pull that out in emails and they ask for really specific advice. So my opinion on things and I mean, I've got a public health background, but I'm not a midwife or a nurse or and so I'd never want to give out medical advice over Instagram dams and things like that. So finding that balance of how much you give and how much time you give to each person is always evolving. It's hard to manage that.
Yeah, I can only imagine that like we've been talking about. It's such an emotional, heartfelt thing that people go through. And also they're not going to go through it. They're not going to go through a first time this ever again.
Yeah, you get one crack at it. So it's haves and and often people say, have you got an episode on this? And I do just know all the episodes in my head. So I think it is quite quick for me to go actually need to look at episode. I didn't know them by number, but I know them enough by name to do a quick search and send them a link. So I love when I have time to do that. I probably need to designate time to sit down and I'm just going to do DM's now rather than looking at them all the time and think, oh, I've got fifty people wanting me to write back and then that can kind of give me a bit of anxiety. But again that's kind of time management. And I was going to spend this year focusing a bit more on creating systems and templates and getting a VA. And I was going to like you have a bit of a year of health, but somehow it snowballed into a year of work. So I need to kind of pay that back. I'll get six months to get it right
… and the rest of your life. Yeah, but without that figure about the year of health, I had a few people inside of me. It's your whole life of health that was like. I know. I know. It's like from a jump start with the DMS. I actually I was just showing my group coaching or another programme the other day, examples of literally me writing back to people because I would never get as many as you and not the same sort of content. But yeah, a lot of people that will send me something and a reply and then they'll sometimes they'll send the whole business plan to and be like can review this and give me some tips. And I'm like, no, if you get a concession cufflink, good luck. And I don't want to be harsh, but it's also like that's my time. Like, you wouldn't go to an obstetrician and be like, can I see you for three hours?
Yeah, yeah. It's like, how did you totally run your business and then and not respond when you put all your time and energy back into a reply. I guess on the flipside of that, if you catch me on a good day, I'll send you a voice message back. And people love that. So it depends how well behaved my children.
I do that too. I actually sent someone the other day and I could hear my child sort of when I played it back, I could hear him crying, thinking, oh,
I wish I could delete them once you've done them. They sit there. I know you can hold you can hold them. And a delete bin comes up and you can delete it and they haven't seen it. You can click and it's like you don't know for sure if it comes got in between. So you talked about a business coach you had before. Have you had many business coaches or mentors or any kind of mantras or books that have really helped you build your business, let's say, outside of, you know, probably just podcast, because I just feel like I'm always busy and I'm not I'm not a big book creator in general. I don't read a lot of fiction books, so I don't read a lot of business books either. I just listen to podcasts probably just now. I don't see. It's funny that you kind of seasons of people, too. Like, I don't listen to any particular agenda anymore. Sometimes I think, look, I've kind of lent all the business stuff. I just need time to implement it. I'm not sure I need to learn more tricks. I just need to sit down and do it. So I'm trying to make myself listen to more fun things. I'm obsessed with Spotless at the moment. Not an object that
I know smartly
spotless. It's fun. Fact is, Jason Bateman anyway, it's very funny. Oh, it's very funny. But mentors and things. Yeah. I've only ever had one business coach and I don't have kind of a set routine with her. I just kind of check in with it when I'm doing something. At the moment I'm making the best course with class, which is coming out soon. So I've been spending a lot of time talking to her and it's so nice to just have someone who's interested to listen about the business because my husband is kind of glazes over in the same way that I do when he talks about his school children. So it's nice to have a designated area where I can just like brain dump all the things, all the concepts and ideas and all the things I've been doing and have and also have someone sort of accountable and have someone saying, well, you did have that done by next week. What's happening there? So I really enjoy that as well. That's kind of ad hoc. When I when I see her, I'm not good at outsourcing tasks. I really need a good voice. Help me with my inbox and I edit the show myself. And I've looked into I know there's a lot of different people that edit podcasts now, but the content of my show is so raw that I just feel like I can't give it to someone who says not to be boring when she talked about a breastfeeding problem. So just chop that back. I just feel like I need to edit that myself, even though that's probably the most annoying of tasks and most time consuming. Some episodes kind of take me an hour and a half to hit it. But recently I had a really challenging one with a lot of interruptions and all of the long pauses and kind of confusing bits that took me about three and a half hours. And I just thought, this is not a great use of my time, but I can't kind of see a way out of that at the moment.
Yeah, I guess when it's so personal, I mean, I have a podcast, but he I used to send him quite detailed notes and then now we've just gone into a system with don't know, but it's very different. We talk about business. It'll be more if someone's coughing, somebody keyed in the background makes noise. Yeah. Or if if, if they've said like if you said oh can you ask the question again. He just tell you not to get. Yeah I can imagine. And also I guess I don't know how you feel like I feel even with some of my podcasts, I should let that person listen to it because they were really nervous and I should let them listen to it before it goes out. And I always say to people, once it goes out, if there's anything that you don't like, we can edit it again, upload to Apple. It'll be fine. But do you I guess, do you feel any kind of like, oh, gosh, like when you're editing, is it hard to edit because they are pouring that heart out?
Yeah. And then even I listen to the way I've asked people questions. I think that didn't sound like right. So we recorded little bits like that as well. So I probably have more opportunity to kind of scrutinise it. But I offer the same thing often, particularly with it's really emotional and content that I say reflect back over it over the next couple of days. And if you decide, I actually did want to share that miscarriage that I talked about because I haven't a lot of my family or what have you, then I'd say, by all means, let me know and I'll just get out of only had two occasions, one occasion where I did an episode with the lady, changed her mind completely and we withdrew. It was fine. We just took it down. And then another one that had some issues with the names of some care providers that when happy with having their name in it. So I've recently become a little bit more diligent about removing names. And if particularly if it's a contentious issue or that was like a big issue with kind of suing the hospital or a complaint, then we don't name it. I don't want to be naming and shaming, but at the same time, I also want people to know the procedures and what's offered a particular hospital. So finding that balance. Yeah. So I just trying to be more careful. And again, I guess I started it, not think it would be as big as it is now. Now if. A little bit more responsibility to kind of stay on top of those sorts of things, so they're kind of a couple of issues I've had.
Yeah, and do you have a lawyer?
No, I did. Yeah. Well, I've got a lawyer who drew up my terms and conditions like a couple of years ago, which I probably should double check that now. But I, I just kind of I put out spot fires when they come back. I'm like, oh, I need someone to check this quickly, but I don't really have a system that's going through things like that.
Yeah that's. Yeah.
Oh no. No, not at all actually. Because I can, I can imagine sometimes
I mean I do say on the terms that I don't give out personal advice and you need to speak to your care provider. And this shows other people it's interview format. So it's them telling their story. It's not us telling you to not get the group strep test or what have you like. You need to make that decision yourself.
Yeah, totally. And so outside of like editing, do you use GarageBand or how do you…?
Yep. So I record which we were laughing about because I'm going to be using I recorded Skype which is vintage, and then I drop that file into GarageBand and then edit it in there and then I put it through phonics to use the note. Yeah. So I put the whole file once I put the intro in the ads and the atro and everything on and put that whole file through an online system called Phonics and it balances out the sounds.
Yes, yes. I had my podcast editor in the Good Business Group on Facebook talking about sound quality, not just for podcast, but doing SoundCloud and all of that. And I think he mentioned something like that.
Yeah, yeah. It's quite cheap and it just scans through. And then I applied to host my site on Laibson, so I put that on there and I just literally followed what my podcast course recommended. So I don't know if one is better than the other. That's just the one that I started with. So I go with that and then once it's on Lip-Synch, then it talks to Apple podcast and all the other ones. And I'm not sure if you I'm not on the radio and a few things that that I need to sort that out, but send it off to most podcast apps
We use simulcast. And it's very similar. I mean, they're all similar. I think if you like, Leepson, it's like the big one Leepson and Fuseproject kind of podcast host. But yeah, I feel like sometimes I'll get like a little email that says you are now on Amazon music or you went out on a blog. So I don't look into it as much as I probably should. Outside of those tools that you just mentioned, are there any other kind of tech tools that you just can't live without?
Every now and again, if I have time, I do a wave file for Instagram like a sound clip of the podcast episode. I like them and I enjoy other people's on, but I feel like Instagram never gives them good organic reach. And I take a lot of time and I think I just never gets much exposure. I'm better off kind of doing a really beautiful bith photo and then having good text, which links them back to the podcast formats does better for me. Yeah, that's not a lot of other and not a techie person by nature. So it's not my strong suit, so I just do the bare minimum to get by. I really got a really good close girlfriend who I send the episodes to each week and she writes up the blog post so I don't do full transcriptions, but she takes out key points. Send me a blog post and we have that on the Web page. So my friend joined us at full of useful.
And so I guess now that have almost five years, are you going to celebrate? Obviously it's Mother's Day. I'm sure you can celebrate it anyway. But are you going to do something fun for five years
I was going to launch my birth course, but it's not ready, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do next week. It's a big week for my area because it's in the Midwest and it's the day of the show and then Mother's Day. So, yeah, I'll see if I can pull something of that now instead, of course. But yeah, yeah, it's a good milestone. So I'm not very good as well at celebrating business milestones and trying to get better as well. I think when you work for yourself, when you're at home all the time, it's not like the office goes. We take one million downloads or yeah, you've got a book deal or they say it's the things you just kind of at home like.
Oh yeah, I remember when my when my book came out because it was locked down, some beautiful friends sent flowers and plants and fruit boxes and stuff. But yeah, my husband was working kids childcare school and I was like, OK, we'll have a book out loud. And it was just like, well, you can't do anything. So I think we got like take away. I don't even think you could get it that way because Warrandyte does like nothing in terms of delivery. So, yeah, I feel you on that part of it. Well, I hope you get spoilt for Mother's Day anyway.
Thanks. I bought myself some things just in case they don't get it right. They see this. They still at the school because of that. So they're getting Hampus so that you just think you'll be better.
Oh, lovely. Well, it's great. So given that you have five years, then what would you do differently if you were starting in?
Well, I think I would have been a stronger team. I feel like when I'm in the thick of things like getting ready to launch, I kind of think I need more help. I need more help. But it's not also not the right time to hire anyone. That's like I don't have time to show someone what I need them to do because I just need it to be done yesterday. So I think I would perhaps I mean, I know it's just I couldn't get someone to edit the show, but I could definitely have someone help with creating better systems early on have just sort of moved my email service provider over and up until like three years. And I wasn't any email addresses or didn't have any kind of free resources together details. So that kind of makes you feel a bit sick to think of like. Well, I shouldn't reflect back, but I could have had a really, really strong list. I've only been growing that over the last two years, so I think there's truth to that. You hear that everywhere in business like Grealish Grey List, and you really should any surprise, like the first time I did a quick freebie, how well received it was. And it didn't take a lot of time. So I think definitely do that. If you're a business analyst now, just make something small. Doesn't have to be a big fancy thing PDF and you'll be surprised how many people sign up.
Yeah, I, I hear you. And even like I started my email list before I started my business all over that stuff. But when we started in The Good Business Group is a Facebook group for small business owners. And I started that in covid literally as like, oh, this is just going to be with my friends and my clients can gather, didn't think it would do anything and we just didn't get email lists when we had questions like will it be a jerk? Promote yourself constantly. But we didn't have email address. And yet it has over a thousand people. And for for ages we didn't capture emails. So. Yeah, and also on Facebook, it's really annoying. Even if people answer it and they give you that email once they've been accepted, you don't get the email again unless you check that in the first seven days after the join the group, it just goes away. It just goes away. So that was really fun. So, yes, I agree with you. Get your emails as early as you can and then I guess this must be a really big one for you. But what are you most proud of from the journey with Australian Birth Stories?
I think things that make me the most happiest is just getting DM's of people saying, I've just I listen to the podcast religiously and I had my baby girl on Tuesday. Or sometimes people message me from delivery suites. I've just had like an hour ago, almost like the first to know. And they're just incredibly grateful. And they said all these three things happened and I wouldn't have even known about them if I hadn't listened to the show said that that's just kind of priceless. And I never really imagined that I'd be helping in touching so many people that I will never meet. And, yeah, to improve their birth outcomes. This is the biggest possible compliment and achievement.
I think that is huge. And yeah, and not just this, but like like I said before, it's the whole community around them. If a woman suffers from post-natal depression or anxiety or depression, that's impacting that family, but it's also impacting her parents, in-laws, everyone around them. So, yeah, I think what you're doing is so fantastic. And on that note, what's next for you? You've got this course coming out and working people connect with you.
Yes. So it's best to find me over at australianbirthstories.com. And I'm on Instagram at @australianbirthstories. And I've just started a new page you can click through from my Instagram page for the birth class, which will be an online antenatal class. And in 2022, I'll have a book. So I just started working on a book.
Oh, I was so excited for you. And I'm yeah. Just I wasn't in Australia when I had my child for the first time, but I really wish I was and I was listening to your well it would have been before your podcast, but still I just think you're doing so fantastic and thank you on behalf of all the people that get so much out of what you're putting out there.
Oh, thanks so much.
Sophie, thank you for being on the podcast.
Thanks, Fiona, bye.
How lovely is Sophie and just the work she is doing and her passion that really, really making motherhood and postpartum and pregnancy just a much more enjoyable and empowering experience for all women and their partners and their families and communities, it's just a beautiful thing to witness someone, do something that they're so passionate about and then that go on to become such a success in its own right. So I really appreciate Sophie's time and coming on to the podcast. I'd love to know what you took away from that. You may never have thought of this stuff. Perhaps you don't have children. You don't want to have children, and that's totally great.
Or perhaps you have gone through, you know, a really traumatic experience and you wish that there was something like Australian Birth Stories around for you. I loved so much of what Sophie had to say. I loved that she started the podcast and she talks about doing it backwards, which I don't necessarily agree with. But I love that she just started a podcast because she wanted to share that knowledge and share those experiences with other people. I think that's such a fantastic way to start a podcast. I also love that she talked about just doing it at your own pace, not feeling like you have to tackle every single thing tomorrow.
Also, that she's really realistic about, you know, potentially you will need to keep working part time. Will you build your business up or you will need to be doing all of the things in your business before you're at a position where you can outsource some of that? I do agree with her that understanding how tools work is really important for them being able to train other people and bring them on board. I often talk about SEO when I talk about marketing for your small business or when I'm talking with my clients and I always say, you know, I'm not an SEO specialist. However, these are the basics that you need to be across. If you're going to go out and outsource SEO or get an agency or get a freelancer. And the same goes with so many elements of business. It's about educating yourself, taking small steps towards your knowledge bank so that if you do outsource that you understand how those things work, even if it's not necessarily your zone of genius in inverted commas. I just also loved that when it comes to things like monetising the podcast or getting sponsorship, she just sort of went out and made it happen. You know, there wasn't really a oh my gosh, this has to be so professional and it has to be polished and looking beautiful.
And B, this fancy PDF, she just went out with Hot and was like, this is what I'm trying to do. This is my audience. These are my numbers. Let's work together. And I think sometimes we overcomplicate those types of tasks in our business because we are so worried about what could happen and our ego gets really in the way and we let fear stop us from taking action at all. So I was really inspired, by the way, and the whole approach that Sophie has to building her business.
Now, if you have found this inspiring, and I'm sure you have definitely go over and have a chat with Sophie, you can do that over at australianbirthstories.com, where you can also find a bunch of fantastic guides and courses from everything from postpartum life after birth to discovering motherhood through to breastfeeding. Or you can also find her over on Instagram at @australianbbirthstories where you'll see so many real life photographs and images and stories from people who have gone through it. And I think like everything in life, those with lived experience have the most to really teach us. So I think Sophie, again for coming onto the podcast, and I know that her business and what she's putting out there is just helping millions and millions of people enjoy the whole process. That is parenthood.
Thank you so much for listening, as always. The full show notes will be available over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/98. Thanks so much for listening. See you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
